IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v17y2020i18p6834-d415829.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Multi-Objective Optimization of a Regional Water–Energy–Food System Considering Environmental Constraints: A Case Study of Inner Mongolia, China

Author

Listed:
  • Junfei Chen

    (Business School, Hohai University, Nanjing 211100, China
    Yangtze Institute for Conservation and Development, Hohai University, Nanjing 210098, China
    Research Institute of Jiangsu Yangtze River Conservation and High-Quality Development, Nanjing 210098, China)

  • Tonghui Ding

    (Business School, Hohai University, Nanjing 211100, China)

  • Ming Li

    (CSIRO Data61, Australian Resources Research Centre, Kensington, WA 6151, Australia)

  • Huimin Wang

    (Business School, Hohai University, Nanjing 211100, China
    State Key Laboratory of Hydrology-Water Resources and Hydraulic Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing 210098, China)

Abstract

Water, energy, and food, as the basic material resources of human production and life, play a prominent role in social and economic development. As the imbalance between the supply and demand of water, energy, and food increases, a highly sensitive and fragile relationship gradually forms among water, energy, and food. In this paper, Inner Mongolia in China is selected as a research area. Firstly, synergy theory is applied to establish the framework of a water–energy–food system. Then, a multi-objective programming model is constructed, where the objective functions are defined to minimize the integrated deviation degree and pollutant emissions of the water–energy–food system. Meanwhile, maximization of the water benefit, energy production, and food production is also considered. In addition, the model takes economy, environment, water, energy, and food as constraints. Finally, a genetic algorithm is designed for accurately assessing the most promising results. The results show that the cooperation degree of the water–energy–food system in Inner Mongolia is getting better and better, and the pollutant emission from the water–energy–food system is decreasing. In 2020, the proportion of agricultural water consumption fell by 1%, while that of industrial water consumption rose by 0.48%. The production of coal, natural gas, and power are all showing an increasing trend. Among them, the increase of natural gas production is as high as 38,947,730 tons of standard coal. However, the proportions of coal, natural gas, and power change inconsistently, where the proportions of coal and natural gas increase while that of power decreases. Corn production accounts for more than 80% of the total, which is in the eldest brother position in the food industry structure. Besides, there are differences between the planned values and optimal values of decision variables. Finally, suggestions are put forward to improve the sustainable development of water–energy–food in Inner Mongolia.

Suggested Citation

  • Junfei Chen & Tonghui Ding & Ming Li & Huimin Wang, 2020. "Multi-Objective Optimization of a Regional Water–Energy–Food System Considering Environmental Constraints: A Case Study of Inner Mongolia, China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(18), pages 1-22, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:18:p:6834-:d:415829
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/18/6834/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/18/6834/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Vanham, D., 2016. "Does the water footprint concept provide relevant information to address the water–food–energy–ecosystem nexus?," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 17(C), pages 298-307.
    2. Kurian, Mathew, 2017. "The water-energy-food nexus," Environmental Science & Policy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 97-106.
    3. Junfei Chen & Xiaoya Yu & Lei Qiu & Menghua Deng & Ran Dong, 2018. "Study on Vulnerability and Coordination of Water-Energy-Food System in Northwest China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-25, October.
    4. Scott, Christopher A. & Pierce, Suzanne A. & Pasqualetti, Martin J. & Jones, Alice L. & Montz, Burrell E. & Hoover, Joseph H., 2011. "Policy and institutional dimensions of the water-energy nexus," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(10), pages 6622-6630, October.
    5. Zhang, Tong & Tan, Qian & Yu, Xiaoning & Zhang, Shan, 2020. "Synergy assessment and optimization for water-energy-food nexus: Modeling and application," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    6. Christophe McGlade & Paul Ekins, 2015. "The geographical distribution of fossil fuels unused when limiting global warming to 2 °C," Nature, Nature, vol. 517(7533), pages 187-190, January.
    7. Bazilian, Morgan & Rogner, Holger & Howells, Mark & Hermann, Sebastian & Arent, Douglas & Gielen, Dolf & Steduto, Pasquale & Mueller, Alexander & Komor, Paul & Tol, Richard S.J. & Yumkella, Kandeh K., 2011. "Considering the energy, water and food nexus: Towards an integrated modelling approach," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(12), pages 7896-7906.
    8. Owen, Anne & Scott, Kate & Barrett, John, 2018. "Identifying critical supply chains and final products: An input-output approach to exploring the energy-water-food nexus," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 210(C), pages 632-642.
    9. Ziv, Guy & Watson, Elizabeth & Young, Dylan & Howard, David C. & Larcom, Shaun T. & Tanentzap, Andrew J., 2018. "The potential impact of Brexit on the energy, water and food nexus in the UK: A fuzzy cognitive mapping approach," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 210(C), pages 487-498.
    10. Li-Chi Chiang & Indrajeet Chaubey & Chetan Maringanti & Tao Huang, 2014. "Comparing the Selection and Placement of Best Management Practices in Improving Water Quality Using a Multiobjective Optimization and Targeting Method," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-23, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Junfei Chen & Ziyue Zhou & Lin Chen & Tonghui Ding, 2020. "Optimization of Regional Water-Energy-Food Systems Based on Interval Number Multi-Objective Programming: A Case Study of Ordos, China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(20), pages 1-18, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. White, David J. & Hubacek, Klaus & Feng, Kuishuang & Sun, Laixiang & Meng, Bo, 2018. "The Water-Energy-Food Nexus in East Asia: A tele-connected value chain analysis using inter-regional input-output analysis," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 210(C), pages 550-567.
    2. Jing-Li Fan & Qian Wang & Xian Zhang, 2021. "A bibliometric analysis of the water-energy-food nexus based on the SCIE and SSCI database of the Web of Science," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 26(2), pages 1-26, February.
    3. Jue Wang & Keyi Ju & Xiaozhuo Wei, 2022. "Where Will ‘Water-Energy-Food’ Research Go Next?—Visualisation Review and Prospect," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-19, June.
    4. Lu, Shibao & Zhang, Xiaoling & Peng, Huarong & Skitmore, Martin & Bai, Xiao & Zheng, Zhihong, 2021. "The energy-food-water nexus: Water footprint of Henan-Hubei-Hunan in China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    5. Govindan, Rajesh & Al-Ansari, Tareq, 2019. "Computational decision framework for enhancing resilience of the energy, water and food nexus in risky environments," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 653-668.
    6. Ingrid Boas & Frank Biermann & Norichika Kanie, 2016. "Cross-sectoral strategies in global sustainability governance: towards a nexus approach," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 16(3), pages 449-464, June.
    7. Mercure, J.-F. & Paim, M.A. & Bocquillon, P. & Lindner, S. & Salas, P. & Martinelli, P. & Berchin, I.I. & de Andrade Guerra, J.B.S.O & Derani, C. & de Albuquerque Junior, C.L. & Ribeiro, J.M.P. & Knob, 2019. "System complexity and policy integration challenges: The Brazilian Energy- Water-Food Nexus," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 230-243.
    8. Simpson, Gareth & Jewitt, Graham & Becker, William & Badenhorst, Jessica & Neves, Ana & Rovira, Pere & Pascual, Victor, 2020. "The Water-Energy-Food Nexus Index: A Tool for Integrated Resource Management and Sustainable Development," OSF Preprints tdhw5, Center for Open Science.
    9. Pitak Ngammuangtueng & Napat Jakrawatana & Pariyapat Nilsalab & Shabbir H. Gheewala, 2019. "Water, Energy and Food Nexus in Rice Production in Thailand," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(20), pages 1-21, October.
    10. Yang, Jin & Chen, Bin, 2016. "Energy–water nexus of wind power generation systems," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 169(C), pages 1-13.
    11. Märker, Carolin & Venghaus, Sandra & Hake, Jürgen-Friedrich, 2018. "Integrated governance for the food–energy–water nexus – The scope of action for institutional change," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 290-300.
    12. Khan, Zarrar & Linares, Pedro & García-González, Javier, 2017. "Integrating water and energy models for policy driven applications. A review of contemporary work and recommendations for future developments," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 1123-1138.
    13. Karimov, Akmal Kh. & Smakhtin, Vladimir & Karimov, Aziz A. & Khodjiev, Khalim & Yakubov, Sadyk & Platonov, Alexander & Avliyakulov, Mirzaolim, 2018. "Reducing the energy intensity of lift irrigation schemes of Northern Tajikistan- potential options," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 81(P2), pages 2967-2975.
    14. Radu Petrariu & Marius Constantin & Mihai Dinu & Simona Roxana Pătărlăgeanu & Mădălina Elena Deaconu, 2021. "Water, Energy, Food, Waste Nexus: Between Synergy and Trade-Offs in Romania Based on Entrepreneurship and Economic Performance," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-23, August.
    15. Zhang, Tong & Tan, Qian & Yu, Xiaoning & Zhang, Shan, 2020. "Synergy assessment and optimization for water-energy-food nexus: Modeling and application," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    16. Ding, Tao & Liang, Liang & Zhou, Kaile & Yang, Min & Wei, Yuqi, 2020. "Water-energy nexus: The origin, development and prospect," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 419(C).
    17. Song, Feng & Reardon, Thomas & Tian, Xin & Lin, Chen, 2019. "The energy implication of China’s food system transformation," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 240(C), pages 617-629.
    18. Hongfang Li & Huixiao Wang & Yaxue Yang & Ruxin Zhao, 2021. "Regional Coordination and Security of Water–Energy–Food Symbiosis in Northeastern China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-19, January.
    19. Logan, Lauren H. & Stillwell, Ashlynn S., 2018. "Probabilistic assessment of aquatic species risk from thermoelectric power plant effluent: Incorporating biology into the energy-water nexus," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 210(C), pages 434-450.
    20. Caiado Couto, Lilia & Campos, Luiza C. & da Fonseca-Zang, Warde & Zang, Joachim & Bleischwitz, Raimund, 2021. "Water, waste, energy and food nexus in Brazil: Identifying a resource interlinkage research agenda through a systematic review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:18:p:6834-:d:415829. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.